Perioperative support, not volume, is necessary to optimize outcomes in surgical management of necrotizing enterocolitis.

BACKGROUND: This study examines the relationship between hospital volume of surgical cases for necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and patient outcomes.

METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional review was performed using the HCUP SID for California from 2007 to 2011. Patients with NEC who underwent surgery were identified using ICD-9CM codes. Risk-adjusted models were constructed with mixed-effects logistic regression using patient and demographic covariates.

RESULTS: 23 hospitals with 618 patients undergoing NEC-related surgical intervention were included. Overall mortality rate was 22.5%. There were no significant differences in the number of NICU beds (p = 0.135) or NICU intensivists (p = 0.469) between high and low volume hospitals. Following risk adjustment, no difference in mortality rate was observed between high and low volume hospitals respectively (24.0% vs. 20.3%, p = 0.555).

CONCLUSIONS: Our observation that neonates with NEC treated at low-volume centers have no increased risk of mortality may be explained by similar availability of NICU and intensivists resources across hospitals.